JETHRO TULL:   Benefit

(UK version)

With You There To Help Me

In days of peace -
sweet smelling summer nights
of wine and song;
dusty pavements burning feet
Why am I crying, I want to know
How can I smile and make it right?
For sixty days and eighty nights
and not give in and lose the fight

I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be
Just one week for the feeling to go -
and with you there to help me
then it probably will

I won't go down
acting the same old play
Give sixty days for just one night
Don't think I'd make it: but then I might

I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be
Just one week for the feeling to go -
and with you there to help me
then it probably will

Nothing To Say

Everyday there's someone asking
what is there to do?
Should I love or should I fight
is it all the same to you?
No I say I have the answer
proven to be true,
But if I were to share it with you,
you would stand to gain
and I to lose
Oh I couldn't bear it
so I've got nothing to say
Nothing to say

Every morning pressure forming
all around my eyes
Ceilings crash, the walls collapse,
broken by the lies
that your misfortune brought upon us
and I won't disguise them
So don't ask me will I explain
I won't even begin to tell you why
No, just because I have a name
well I've got nothing to say
Nothing to say

Climb a tower of freedom,
paint your own deceiving sign
It's not my power
to criticize or to ask you to be blind
To your own pressing problem
and the hate you must unwind
So ask of me no answer
there is none that I could give
you wouldn't find
I went your way ten years ago
and I've got nothing to say
Nothing to say

Alive And Well And Living In

Nobody sees her here, her eyes are slowly closing
If she should want some peace, she sits there, without moving,
and puts a pillow over the phone
And if she feels like dancing no one will know it
Giving herself a chance there's no need to show her how it should be

She can't remember now when she was all in pieces
She's quite content to sit there listening to what he says
How he didn't like to be alone
And if he feels like crying she's there to hear him
No reason to complain and nothing to fear, they always will be

Son

Oh, I feel sympathy Be grateful my son for what you get
Expression and passion Ten days for watching the sunset;
when I was your age amusement we made for ourselves
"Permission to breathe sir," don't talk like that, I'm your old man
They'll soon be demobbed son, so join up as soon as you can
You can't borrow that
`cos that's for the races and doesn't grow on trees

I only feel what touches me
and feel in touching I can see
a better state to be in
Who has the right
to question what I might do,
in feeling I should touch the real
and only things I feel

It's advice and it's nice to know when you're best advised
You've only turned thirty, so son, you'd better apologize
And when you grow up, if you're good
we will buy you a bike

For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me

Watery eyes of the last sighing seconds,
blue reflections mute and dim
beckon tearful child of wonder
to repentance of the sin
And the blind and lusty lovers
of the great eternal lie
go on believing nothing
since something has to die
And the ape's curiosity -
money power wins,
and the yellow soft mountains move under him

I'm with you L E M
though it's a shame that it had to be you
The mother ship is just a blip
from your trip made for two
I'm with you boys, so please employ just a little extra care
It's on my mind I'm left behind
when I should have been there
Walking with you

And the limp face hungry viewers
fight to fasten with their eyes
like the man hung from the trapeze -
whose fall will satisfy
And congratulate each other
on their rare and wondrous deed
That their begrudged money bought
to sow the monkey's seed
And the yellow soft mountains
they grow very still
witness as intrusion the humanoid thrill

To Cry You A Song?

Flying so high, trying to remember
how many cigarettes did I bring along?
When I get down I'll jump in a taxi cab
driving through London town
to cry you a song

It's been a long time -
still shaking my wings
Well, I'm a glad bird
I got changes to ring

Closing my dream inside its paper-bag
Thought I saw angels
but I could have been wrong
Search in my case,
can't find what they're looking for
Waving me through
to cry you a song

It's been a long time -
still shaking my wings
Well I'm a glad bird
I got changes to ring

Lights in the street,
peeping through curtains drawn
Rattling of safety chain taking too long
The smile in your eyes was never so sweet before -
Came down from the skies
to cry you a song

A Time For Everything

Once it seemed there would always be
a time for everything
Ages passed I knew at last
my life had never been
I'd been missing what time could bring

Fifty years and I'm filled with tears and joys
I never cried
Burn the wagon and chain the mule
The past is all denied
There's no time for everything
No time for everything

Inside

All the places I've been make it hard to begin
to enjoy life again on the inside,
but I mean to
Take a walk around the block
and be glad that I've got me some time
to be in from the outside,
and inside with you

I'm sitting on the corner feeling glad
Got no money coming in but I can't be sad
That was the best cup of coffee I ever had
And I won't worry about a thing
because we've got it made,
here on the inside, outside so far away

And we'll laugh and we'll sing
get someone to bring our friends here
for tea in the evening -
Old Jeffrey makes three
Take a walk in the park,
does the wind in the dark
sound like music to you?
Well I'm thinking it does to me

Can you cook, can you sew -
well, I don't want to know
That is not what you need on the inside,
to make the time go

Counting lambs, counting sheep
we will fall into sleep
and we awake to a new day of living
and loving you so

Play In Time

Got to take in what I can
There is no time to do what must be done,
While I do some thinking
Sleeping is hard to come by,
So we'll all sit down and try to play in time,
and we feel like singing
Talking to people in my way

Blues were my favorite colour,
til I looked around and found another song
that I felt like singing
Trying so hard to reach you;
playing what must be played, what must be sung -
and it's what I'm singing
Talking to people in my way

Sossity: You're A Woman

Hello you straight-laced lady,
dressed in white but your shoes aren't clean
Painted them up with polish
in the hope we can't see where you've been
The smiling face that you've worn
to greet me rising at morning -
sent me out to work for my score
Please me and say what it's for
Give me the straight-laced promise
and not the pathetic lie

Tie me down with your ribbons
and sulk when I ask you why
Your Sunday paper voice cries
demanding truths I deny
The bitter-sweet kiss you pretended
is offered, our affair mended
Sossity: You're a woman
Society: You're a woman

All of the tears you're wasting
are for yourself and not for me
It's sad to know you're aging
Sadder still to admit I'm free
Your immature physical toy has grown,
too young to enjoy at last your straight-laced agreement:
woman, you were too old for me
Sossity: You're a woman
Society: You're a woman


BONUS TRACKS:

Singing All Day (see
Living In The Past)

Witch's Promise (see Living In The Past)

Just Trying To Be (see Living In The Past)

Teacher (see Living In The Past)